Barbara Monahan, Teacher At Nathan Hale School, Dies At 97

"She used to walk to school every day," said Celeste McLaughlin, Monahan's stepdaughter. "The kids who she taught would remember Mrs. Monahan because they always encountered her on the street."

Monahan, who adored children, began teaching kindergarten in Manchester in 1958. She served on the board that created the first Head Start preschool program in Manchester.

"I can remember her sitting at the kitchen table, planning for the children," McLaughlin said. "Her style of teaching was wonderful, and the kids adored her."

McLaughlin said that although her stepmother was unable to have children, Monahan treated the family of her husband, Thomas Monahan, like her own.

"She always wanted children and she couldn't have them, which was one of the saddest things," McLaughlin said. "I think she gave what should have gone to her own children and gave it to everyone."

Monahan married her husband in 1950 when McLaughlin was 3 years old. The family moved to Manchester in 1953, where Thomas Monahan became the town's building inspector.

McLaughlin remembers her stepmother exposing her to new experiences.

"She introduced me to the world," McLaughlin said, adding that her lessons were as small as trying a new kind of food and as large as challenging her aversion to heights. "That's what she did to everyone. She helped me learn about … more than what was just around you and in your town."

Monahan remembered every birthday, every anniversary and every name in the extended Monahan family, McLauglin said.

One example of the way Monahan made an impression as a teacher comes from a service held after she died. A woman approached McLaughlin and told her that she fondly remembered Monahan from Nathan Hale School, even though she never had her as a teacher.

"She didn't just do that for me," McLaughlin said. "It didn't matter who you were, she gave up herself and what she knew."

McLaughlin remembered her step-mother's caring spirit.

"I was very tentative when I was young," McLaughlin said. "I was shy and I didn't want to try anything new or whatever. A lot of the things that I tried and learned to love was because of Barbara."

Monahan received her bachelor's degree from Middlebury College in 1936, attended the Bank Street School of Education in New York City in 1948 and earned a master's degree from the University of Hartford. She worked as a secretary for a few companies before getting into teaching. She retired in 1976.

McLaughlin said that her stepmother and her father fell in love In Manchester.

"I think they liked the fact that it was still a small town but it was like a village," McLaughlin said. "It was a city and it was growing."

McLaughlin said she will remember her stepmother as strong-willed and independent.

"Once you were in her life, you were in her life," McLaughlin said. "She never forgot anyone that she met. There were very few people — I could put them on half of one hand — who really ticked her off."

Monahan is survived by her stepdaughter, Celeste Monahan; her close friends, Thomas and Gay Mertz, and their daughter Dawn Day; her sister-in-law, Joan Binkerd; and other close friends and family, including John Philips, Caroline Philips, Janice Miller Stridick, Liz Spencer Forkel, Robert Silva, Margaret Meachem and Jean Clifford. Monahan's husband, Thomas, died in 1977.